Parkway Drive, Polaris, Level @ The Gov 24/1/2018
There’s blood in the water, (sinking, always, sinking). There’s blood in the water,
(sinking, always, sinking). There’s blood, In the WATER!!! Ten years of Horizons baby, what a fucking cracker. Night two of a three night sold out stand for the Parkway Drive boys and did they deliver, fuck yeah they did!!
What a period for album shows, Grinspoon doing Guide to a Better Living, Pennywise doing Full Circle and tonight Parkway delivered their masterpiece album Horizons.
Level and Polaris opened the show and both had the large and growing crowd moving. Polaris particularly crushed it and had the crowd in the palm of their hand. A great mix of scream and melody and front-man Jamie ruled the stage and had the crowd obeying his every command. Great support acts, amazing!! If Polaris is the future, the future is bright!!
Then it was time, Parkway entered to Begin and exploded into The Sirens’ Song and from the opening lyric “Virtue is lost” to the closing lyric of Horizons “Embrace our last empty… Horizons” it was a flat out metalcore onslaught. Playing an album cover to cover doesn’t allow for surprises, but when the album is this good who cares. The album has no flat spots and does not spot for breath. In fact I think the boys slotted Wild Eyes and Vice Grip into the middle of the album for a little breather.
Despite dusting off a few tracks, some for the first time, Parkway were polished and didn’t miss a beat. Winston was in fine form, winding the clock back and hitting the highs and lows with ease and riff master Jeff shredded all night, nailing the intro to Breaking Point with perfection. I cant think of another band who shred as hard as Parkway do and with such minimal effort.
The sold out crowd were giving as well as they were receiving, regularly opening up for viscous circle pits and singing along all night. Highlights were coming thick and fast, but Feed Them To The Pigs, Boneyards, Idols and Anchors and hearing Frostbite for the first time were the standouts. The show was finished with an encore of Crushed and Bottom Feeder which had the crowd singing along before filing out with horn raised and ears ringing.
Review by Tim Nicholas